social influence Flashcards
what is internalisation?
- a change in private as well as public opinion/ behaviour
- occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms
- persists even in absence of group members
what is identification?
- publicly change opinion/behaviour may not privately agree
* act in the same way as the group because you want to be apart of it
what is compliance?
- going along with others in public
* temporary, usually stops as soon as group pressure stops
What is informational social influence (ISI)?
- need to be right
* agree with the opinion of the majority or person you believe is most likely to be correct
what is normative social influence (NSI)?
- need to be liked
* agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted
what is the research support for ISI?
- Lucas et al. asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult
- greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were more difficult
- this shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer which is predicted by the ISI explanation
what are the individual differences in NSI?
- Some research shows that NSI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way
- people who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI
- this shows that desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others
what was the procedure of Asch’s study?
•tested conformity by asking participants to match a standard line to it’s comparison
•each participant was tested individually in a group of
6-8 confederates
•all confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer
what were the findings of Asch’s study?
- participants gave the wrong answer 36.8 percent of the time
- most participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)
What were the three variations Asch further investigated and the results?
- group size: addition of further confederates made little difference, suggests that a small majority isn’t sufficient for influence to be exerted
- unanimity: confederate who disagreed with the others introduced which led to reduced conformity, suggests that the influence of the majority depends on the group being unanimous
- task difficulty: increased difficulty increased conformity, suggests that ISI has a greater affect when test is harder
How is Asch’s research a child of its time?
- Repeats of Asch’s study had less conformity
- society has changed since the study took place
- this is a limitation of his study because results can’t be applied to today
How does the artificial situation and task of Asch’s study affect his findings?
- participants knew they were in a research study and demand characteristics could have affected the
- groups don’t resemble what everyday life is like
- this is a limitation because findings cannot be generalised to everyday situations (lack of external validity)
Why is there limited application of findings for Asch’s study?
- only American men where tested, United States is an individualist culture so less likely to conform and men are also less likely to conform than women
- conformity levels are sometimes higher than Asch found, his findings can only be applied to American men
What is the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?
- set up a mock prison at Stanford University
- students who passed psychological testing were randomly assigned guard of prisoner
- prisoners had strict daily routines and guards had their own uniform, were given complete power over prisoners
What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?
- within two days prisoners rebelled against the harsh conditions, guards harassed prisoners
- after the rebellion prisoners were subdued and depressed
- guards became more brutal and enjoyed the power they had been given
What was the conclusion of Zimbardo’s study?
•participants and researchers conformed to their social roles
How did Zimbardo control variables in his study?
- selection of participants, emotionally stable participants chosen
- increases internal validity of the study
How did Zimbardo’s study have a lack of realism?
- participants could have been acting on stereotypes of guards and prisoners
- however Zimbardo gave evidence that it was real to participants, 90 percent of prisoners’ conversations were about prison life
- high internal validity due to participants believing it was real
What was the role of dispositional factors in Zimbardo’s study?
- Zimbardo accused of exaggerating influence of social roles and minimising role of personality factors
- a minority of guards behaved in a brutal manor
- suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion may be over-stated
what was the procedure of milgram’s obedience study?
- 40 male participants that believed the experiment would be on memory
- participants believed a ‘teacher’ and ‘learner’ were randomly selected however confederate always ended up as the ‘learner’
- ‘teacher’ required to give increasingly stronger shocks each time the ‘learner’ made a mistake in the learning task
- when participants turned to experimenter for guidance the same four ‘prods’ were used
what were the findings in milgram’s obedience study?
- no participants stopped below 300 volts
- 65 percent continued to the highest level of 450 volts
- participants showed sigs of extreme tension such as trembling and even seizures
how did milgram’s obedience study have low internal validity?
- Orne and Holland argued that participants didn’t really in the set up, they thought the shocks were fake
- it lacked internal validity
- participants even stated their doubts about the shocks
how can the low internal validity in milgram’s obedience study be argued?
- a similar experiment conducted where real shocks were given to a puppy and majority of participants gave what they believe to be a fatal shock
- this suggests milgram’s study was genuine because people behaved the same way with real shock
how did milgram’s obedience study have good external validity?
- despite the lab setting the relationship between the authority figure and the participant reflected authority relationships in real life
- hofling et al. studied nurses and found high levels of obedience to unjustified demands from doctors
- this suggests that milgram’s study can be generalised to other situations
how did milgram’s study have supporting replication?
- replication of milgram’s study was made into a French tv show where the participants believed they were being paid to shock people (actually actors) in front of an audience
- 80 percent of participants gave maximum shock to an apparently unconscious man, behaviour was the same as milgram’s study and supports original conclusion
what was the conclusion of milgram’s obedience study?
ordinary people will unjust obey orders from an authority figure
